


Distrust: Sixteen Students, Seven Days

by Kitt_Monroe



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Different Names, Gen, I'll add more tags if they become relevant, Spoilers for much of the game
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 22:33:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1916415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitt_Monroe/pseuds/Kitt_Monroe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For every story told, there's a different story just like it, but different in the most subtle ways. The same goes for the group of volatile, uniquely talented students who attended Hope's Peak Academy Class 78: a story where the students have seven days to commit murder, where not all students have immediately recognizable talents... Where anything new is possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distrust: Sixteen Students, Seven Days

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I'd write about the beta version of Dangan Ronpa, originally titled "Distrust." I've taken a lot of liberties with some of the dialogue in some places, and near-replicated the dialogue in other places; I hope that's not bothersome in any way. Many of the characters' names were different in the beta version--but the ones whose beta names were never made clear will retain their final version names in my story. In addition, most of the characters have different talents in my version; the ones that don't necessarily keep their final version talents for one reason or another.
> 
> You may want to check out the beta designs for the characters (some of which I changed slightly, I admit) before reading. One place you might find them: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/722106-danganronpa-trigger-happy-havoc/68835622  
> For Ikusaba, just imagine her exactly as she is in the game. She wasn't really in the beta version, so she doesn't really have a beta appearance.

Supposedly, anyone who graduated from Hope’s Peak Academy (or, the “Academy of Hope,” as many people liked to call) was guaranteed success in their professional life. Admission there was by invitation only; the school didn’t accept applications and generally made a publicity stunt of making fun of any high school students who sent an application in.

That school, situated in the geographical center of Tokyo, had a long history as one of the premier high schools in all of Japan—all of the world, really. The school accepted students it deemed “Super High-school Level” at whatever they did. For example, one of the students accepted this year was a “Super High-school Level Pop Star,” a well-known pop singer who, even though she was only in high school, already had a long and chart-topping singing career. Another one was a “Super High-school Level Baseball Star,” the ace and fourth batter on the highest-ranked high-school baseball team in Japan. There were thirteen other students like that, all with different and unique talents but all “Super High-school Level” in them.

And then there was Makoto Naegi.

Naegi would readily confess he had no such talents. He scored right around the middle in almost every test he’d ever taken, and he wasn’t particularly strong. He hadn’t won awards for almost anything—maybe “good attendance” one year of something, but that was the extent of it—and he could really go on about this subject but the idea was probably clear already. He was nothing more or less than a totally average high school student.

But, apparently, he did have _one_ talent that warranted being accepted into this school: the ability to be selected in a lottery. That was what he had been told in his acceptance letter, anyway; the letter had told him, in not so many words, that the school had thrown the names of all the high school students in Japan into a lottery and pulled his own name out. And that meant he had “Super High-school Level Good Luck,” if the letter was to be believed.

Naegi was more than a little confused, and it wasn’t like that acceptance letter boosted his self-esteem. But, regardless, the promise of guaranteed success for graduating the school was more than enough to convince him to accept admission. So, he’d done all the research he possibly could on what kinds of people he could expect to meet at his new high school, mostly on an online forum with a thread specifically written to talk about the new Hope’s Peak students. They seemed like a tough bunch of people to match up to…but he supposed he wasn’t going there to match talents, he was going there to learn.

There were two students, Naegi remembered, whom he hadn't found any information on at all. One of them was himself--he guessed the forum users didn't feel the need to talk about someone like him, someone with no real talents. The other student he only knew existed because the forums claimed there were sixteen students, and he'd only found info on fourteen. He wondered what this last student would turn out to be like. Would they be just like him: Someone completely unremarkable in a group of societal giants?

A million different things cycled through his head at once as he stood, stock-still, in front of the doors to Hope’s Peak Academy. Was he going to find success here? Would anybody like him? Or would he be ridiculed for not actually having a talent?

He knew it wouldn’t do for him to just stand here worrying; so he walked inside, walked inside the doors to his new and apparently better high school.

There was nobody around. It was kind of a letdown—he had wanted to meet the people he would be going to school with from now on—but at the same time it was a relief, as he wasn’t sure yet how he would go about meeting people of such a high position in society.

He already knew he had arrived insanely early, so he figured he would just take a look around the school he would be attending…

But that wasn’t going to happen.

As soon as he took a step into the entrance hall, his vision began to go fuzzy. In the next moment, his body felt numb, and before he could even stop to process what was happening to him, his mind shut off and his consciousness suddenly, abruptly dissipated.

…Presently, he felt himself regain consciousness, but he didn’t open his eyes for a while, electing instead to try to feel his way around what was happening.

He was sitting down with his head face down on something. He soon recognized the polished texture of the object: he was sitting at a classroom desk with his head on top of the desk. Had he been sleeping here? But he certainly didn’t remember ever going to this classroom, especially not after the catastrophe in the entrance hall.

Further investigation, which included actually opening his eyes, revealed that he was indeed in a classroom, but it wasn’t a classroom he had ever seen before. He wondered if he was even still at Hope’s Peak; it would account for the classroom, but he really didn’t know how he would have gotten _into_ the classroom. It was also past eight o’clock, meaning he was now officially late for gathering in the entrance hall he still didn’t remember leaving.

More disturbing were the security camera very ostentatiously placed on the classroom ceiling and the iron plates bolted to where it looked like windows were supposed to be. In particular, a pamphlet on the desk he had woken up at had some choicely weird words to say to him, specifically, “A revolutionary new world awaits you bastards inside these school walls.”

What was with the “you bastards?” Naegi couldn’t help feeling like there was something really wrong going on here as he exited the classroom and, no thanks to any sort of directions or school staff (who were all mysteriously absent), eventually managed to find himself back in the same entrance hall he had entered earlier.

And in that entrance hall, just kind of standing around doing nothing, were fifteen people Naegi was pretty positive weren’t there before.

He wasn’t sure what to say. These people didn’t _look_ dangerous or anything like that, but Naegi still felt himself put his guard up—most people would when confronted with a bunch of people they didn’t know. Thankfully, they started talking without much hesitation:

“Are you a new student here, too?” asked a tall guy with wavy hair and hilariously baggy pants.

Naegi swallowed as he realized what that question must mean. “So, you guys are also…?” he trailed off.

A small girl with a very unique haircut that had Naegi instantly gritting his teeth in order to not laugh cleared her throat quietly and answered, “Yeah. We’re the new students who are supposed to start school at Hope’s Peak Academy today.”

A large boy with round glasses bit his own hand nervously and added, “With you, there are sixteen of us…I _think_ we’re all here…?”

Naegi took a quick sweeping glance at all fifteen of the people who were apparently students just like him. They had already seemed interesting when he came in, but knowing these were the “Super High-school Level” students he was supposed to be going to school with just made them that much more special-seeming.

“Um, nice to meet you,” he told them. “My name is Makoto Naegi.” After biting his lip a bit, he went on: “I don’t know what happened, exactly, but somehow I fell asleep and I ended up being late…”

“You too?” the wavy-haired man asked with wide eyes.

A girl with abnormally pale skin and a very stuffy-looking dress spoke in what Naegi recognized as a really shabby German accent. “Things just get curiouser and curiouser, hmm?”

Before much else could be said, a boy with spiky black hair interjected, “You have kept us waiting! Naegi-kun, tardiness will not be tolerated! You must have known you were to be here at eight!”

“What are you even talking about?” asked a girl with strawberry blonde pigtails. “It’s not like he had a choice, y’know.”

"Hey, we should probably introduce ourselves to him!" a girl in a sporting jacket supposed, pounding one palm with the other fist with a cheery smile. "He'd probably like to know who we all are!"

Naegi swallowed. He wasn't sure he could handle introducing himself to fifteen different people individually, when they would all probably have their eyes on him the entire time. But everyone seemed to agree with the sporting jacket girl's idea, so he guessed he would have to do it.

So, consciously disregarding the definitely-new bulkhead thing where the door to the entrance hall used to be—mostly because he was too scared of it to acknowledge it right now—he walked up first to the closest person, a trim boy with short blonde hair and a matching goatee. He wore a plain orange shirt and a white jacket with the collar turned up, both with a pinkish tint. "Yo man," he greeted Naegi with a thumbs up. "Name's Kazuo Matsuzaki. What's up!"

Naegi vaguely remembered seeing this guy on the forums. Kazuo Matsuzaki, apparently the greatest junior league baseball player in Japan. Naegi wasn't sure why, but he felt like Matsuzaki was a guy he could be friends with, if only because the Super High-school Level Baseball Star didn't look nearly as standoffish or intimidating in person.

Which reminded him...in the picture he'd seen of Kazuo Matsuzaki on the forums, Matsuzaki's hair was much shorter, in pretty much a buzzcut orientation. And yet, when Naegi looked at him now, his blonde hair was short, yes, but not _that_ short.

“Is there an issue?” Matsuzaki wondered, not unkindly, when he saw Naegi focusing on his hair.

"No, it's just...I guess I expected someone more...I don't know, sportsmanlike," Naegi admitted, not knowing how to bring up the hair without it sounding weird.

"Oh man, you saw that photo?" Matsuzaki whined, apparently knowing exactly what Naegi was talking about. "Yeah, I hate that thing. I didn't even want to take that picture, but...the guys took a vote, and I had to do the photo, _and_  shave my head for it. It sucked."

While Naegi mulled this information over, Matsuzaki went on: "Speaking of which, can I confess something? I actually  _hate_ baseball! I never even went to practice, not once."

"You hate it?" Naegi repeated, actually physically flinching back a bit. He had to admit, that was a surprising thing to hear from someone who was admitted to Hope's Peak for that very talent.

"Yeah!" Matsuzaki confirmed. "Like, can I be honest with you? A big part of why I came here is to pursue my real dreams! I wanna be a musician, you see?"

"A musician...?" Naegi asked, blinking several times. He wasn't going to say it out loud, but Matsuzaki wasn't the kind of guy he could really picture as a singer.

"Hell yeah!" Matsuzaki cheered. "I mean, can't you see it?"

"Huh," Naegi replied, not sure what else to say. "Well, it's nice to meet you."

Matsuzaki concluded the conversation with a wave. Naegi made his way over to the girl with the weirdly pale skin. She also had long feathery red pigtails tied up in red bows. She wore a gothic outfit in mostly dark browns and whites with a twisty red tie, as well as a pair of somewhat large cross-shaped earrings. Her eyes were the same color as her hair. "Uh, hi," he offered, a little taken aback by a mysterious air that seemed to surround her.

"Greetings," she replied with that same bad German accent and a pleasant grin. "I do not believe we have been introduced. I am S. Rudenberg." Naegi must have looked confused, because she added, "You may call me S."

"S...?" Naegi repeated. Just an initial? "I'm sorry, I... Can you tell me your real name?"

The girl's smile faltered. "I'm afraid that is impossible," she declined. "You may call me S.," she said again after a moment.

Naegi had only seen a little about this girl. A Super High-school Level Gambler, she was purported to have never lost a single bet. Her net worth was supposedly in the billions of yen, but Naegi wasn't sure he believed that. He _did_ believe, however, the part on the forums where he'd read that she was capable of frightening even grown adults, and how she regularly ruined people's entire fortunes and lives during single betting games.

"It's a pleasure," S. told him, her darling grin returning. She interlocked her fingers and held her hands under her chin, tilting her head to the side. Naegi couldn't help thinking she looked kind of like a marionette when she did that.

"Oh, uh, the pleasure's mine," he assured her after he realized he was staring. He then shuffled quickly off to the next person.

The next person he saw was a prim-looking boy in an expensive-looking suit and glasses with shoulder-length dark blonde hair. He was looking off to the side at something when Naegi approached. "Hello," Naegi greeted him.

The boy turned to look at him, appearing somewhat affronted. He stared Naegi down for several seconds until such time as Naegi became quite self-conscious before stating simply, "I’m Byakuya Togami."

Naegi wasn't sure what to make of that. Sure, he knew the boy's name now, but for all the interest Togami seemed to take in making introductions, Naegi could have assumed he was looking for a phone number in a phone book. Naegi was slightly insulted, but decided to brush it off.

“Pleased to…meet you…” he offered, not sure if he was actually allowed to after an introduction like that.

He had seen a good bit about Togami on the forums. The guy was practically made of money. As a Super High-school Level Day Trader, he had amassed an untellable fortune on the stock market. There was nothing he couldn't buy if he wanted to--Naegi wouldn't be surprised if Togami owned his own city. What Naegi _hadn't_ found on the forums was that he was apparently a distant kind of person.

"I’m done introducing myself. Are you just going to keep standing here and wasting my time? You're an eyesore," Togami informed him, confirming Naegi's first impression. "Go away."

Naegi obeyed. But he didn't have to go very far to run into his next classmate, since his next classmate, the one with the black spiky hair, came to him instead. "I am Kiyotaka Ishimaru!" he declared with a stern face, saluting for effect. "I believe in bold simplicity! Let's work together on our educational crusade!"

Ishimaru had an extremely monotonous appearance. He wore a professional black button-up jacket over a white dress shirt and black slacks. The previously mentioned hair wasn’t really just black but _stark_ black, and very tall and spiky, and he had black eyes and very bushy eyebrows. Naegi felt like he looked a lot like some lawyer video game character he'd heard of, but he wasn't sure exactly who.

The main reason, he realized, that he thought that was because Ishimaru himself was a Super High-school Level Attorney. According to the forums, he had been defending court cases since he was fifteen, and he'd never lost a single case. Naegi had also read that he tended to be a little overwhelming, but he was very passionate about the law, which made him a very effective attorney.

“Makoto Naegi…that is your name, you said?” Ishimaru recalled. With a suddenly bright disposition, he continued, “Makoto Naegi! That is truly a magnificent name! You must thank your parents for naming you so splendidly!”

Then the stern expression returned. “But, with such a name, I expect you to act accordingly and always follow the provisions of the legal system and your own strong ethics! There is no greater accomplishment in life than always keeping in line with the law! It is what molds us into good citizens in an otherwise chaotic society!”

Naegi didn't know what to say to that.

Okay, so Ishimaru _was_ a little overwhelming; but, Naegi figured, he seemed like a nice person. He moved on to the next closest person, a girl with pale violet hair in double braids and a purple necktie. She was leaning against the wall in deep thought but separated herself from it when she saw him approaching.

She stared at him expectantly for a moment. "Good morning," he greeted her with a small wave. She didn't say anything but instead appeared to chew the inside of her cheek for a few seconds.

Naegi cleared his throat, already seeing that this conversation would be difficult. "Could you...tell me your name?" he requested.

She didn't look impressed or at all enthused to comply with his request, but after a second or two more, she nodded. "My name is...Kyouko Kirisawa," she explained.

Naegi didn't recognize that name, or her appearance, at all. He figured this girl must be the student he couldn't find any information about online. That meant he also didn't know what her Super High-school Level talent--and from his interaction with her so far, he wasn't sure she was going to appreciate him asking.

"So, Kirisawa-san," he ventured anyway, "if you don't mind my asking, what exactly is your talent?"

"My what?" she asked without much attention.

"You know, your Super High-school Level talent," he clarified. "How you got into Hope's Peak Academy?"

She chewed her lip for a few seconds before answering. "Do I _have_ to tell you?" she wondered, and Naegi knew from her tone that it was a rhetorical question, but he kind of wanted to answer it anyway because it seemed like the kind of question you would usually answer.

"I...I guess not," he admitted, kind of confused as to what problem she would have with telling him.

"If I don't have to, then I don't think I will," she decided, going back to leaning against the wall.

Naegi did a quick evaluation and concluded that this conversation was even less valuable and informative than the one he had had with Togami.

He looked around for someone else who looked willing to talk to him and discovered a girl with blue hair staring, somewhat forlornly, across the room at him. She took him noticing her as an excuse to make a beeline for him and was right in front of him within three seconds. "Hi!" she giggled. "I'm Sayaka Maizono! I look forward to getting to know you!"

There was something immediately familiar to Naegi about this girl, and not just from the forums. He knew from the _forums_ that Sayaka Maizono was a Super High-school Level Pop Star, one of the most adored singers in the country. She had previously been part of a five-member singing group, but she had been the breakout star from the beginning and was now pursuing a solo career. She mostly sang cute love songs, with some more emotional stuff thrown in here and there.

She was very pretty, one of the prettiest people Naegi had ever seen in fact. She had light gray eyes, which he usually found strange, but they worked perfectly on her. Her outfit was mostly blue, with a dark blue ascot and a light blue skirt. Her shirt was white with blue shoulders, and she wore white platform shoes. Her skin was pale--not like S.'s, but still paler than usual--and she had a weirdly fragile-seeming quality to her, like a doll made of porcelain.

"I assure you, I'm not a doll! I’m very much alive!" she said with a sweet laugh.

Naegi's eyes went wide. Had he...had he said all of that aloud? It would certainly be the first time he'd done something that monumentally weird. "How did you know what I was thinking?" he inquired, phrasing the question as non-specifically as possible.

The gentle smile, the fragile disposition, the sugary laugh, they all disappeared, and she stared him straight in the eye with a deadly serious expression. "I can read minds," she informed him.

"What?" Naegi demanded.

"Just kidding! I just have good intuitions," Maizono revised with a giggle. That was some really good intuition, Naegi couldn't help thinking.

But Naegi _also_ knew he'd seen her somewhere else. He didn’t know how to bring it up that he would have encountered someone as famous as Maizono, but the thought stuck with him as he started to leave for the next person. "Wait," she protested as he turned away. When he looked at her again, she seemed to be studying him carefully. "That’s right…! You said, your name is Makoto Naegi--?”

Naegi's eyes widened again. Did she feel it too? He was about to reply with something along the lines of "yeah, I think I know what you mean," but Ishimaru stepped toward them with a hand held up in a "stop" motion.

"Introductions should be short and to the point!" he told them. "There is no time for needless chatter!"

Naegi sighed. "We'll talk later," Maizono promised him. Naegi nodded with a grateful smile.

He turned away and found himself face-to-face with a very tall girl with a muscular build and white hair cut off sharply at the neck. She wore a white shirt with a red skirt and bandages on her forearms and lower legs. Naegi was thoroughly terrified, and he seriously considered running for his life except that his body tensed up and he couldn't move. "H-hi," he finally managed to say after several seconds.

She nodded at him, apparently accepting his greeting, and replied, "I am Sakura Oogami."

After Naegi had calmed his nerves, he allowed himself to remember who this woman was. He had pretty much gathered from the forums that _everyone,_ not just him, thought Sakura Oogami was terrifying. She had apparently garnered the nickname "The Ogre," which Naegi thought was a little cruel, but it certainly seemed fitting considering her astoundingly tough-looking frame. A Super High-school Level Bodybuilder, she was known nationwide as a master of exercise and physical training. Naegi was certain he wouldn't want to get on her bad side.

She didn't seem to be interested in further conversation, so Naegi moved to the next nearby person, the heavyset boy with round glasses. He wore a faded yellow, sloppily buttoned dress shirt, an he had a lock of hair sticking up in such a straight manner that Naegi suspected it was styled that way with gel. "Hello," he greeted the boy.

"I am Yuji Ando!" he replied without hesitation or any attempt to reciprocate the hello. "But, if you wanna call me by my nickname, **The Alpha and the Omega,** I don't mind."

Naegi was momentarily stunned; he could have sworn that when Ando said "The Alpha and the Omega," his voice changed totally from the somewhat nasally tenor he had begun with to a grand baritone and then back again when he was done nicknaming himself. Naegi swallowed and brushed off the notion, figuring he must have been hearing things.

He recognized this guy from the forums, where he was kind of treated as a joke. Ando was apparently a Super High-school Level Animator who had produced several widely-watched animes and cartoons from existing stories that didn't have television adaptations yet, especially mangas. What was especially impressive was that, if the forums were right, Ando did this stuff all on his own or with minimal assistance from professional animating companies, so he was able to slap his own name on most of the animes he made. Naegi was pretty sure he'd probably seen a show made by Ando at some point, since he mostly watched popular stuff and Ando's shows were certainly mainstream.

"So, are you versed in the wonders of 2D relationships, Naegi Makoto-dono?" he continued with a slight bow. Naegi was a little confused by his choice of honorific--wasn't the -dono honorific like a thousand years out of date?--but more than that he was curious as to what "wonders" Ando was talking about.

He accomplished an inquiry into the subject by repeating the word. "Wonders?"

"Yes!" Ando replied. "That's where I got my start in becoming a Super High-school Level Animator! It's a grand story, really!"

Naegi began to zone out as Ando went on, not really sure how to respond to what he was saying. "Why, one time, at a culture festival, one of my series sold fifty thousand DVDs! Some idiot classmates of mine thought I couldn't hack it as an animator--this was before mine was a household name in the anime world, of course!--but boy, did I show them!"

Naegi was admittedly impressed by that, but he still didn't know how to contribute to the conversation. Still, Ando seemed like a good enough guy, probably with many stories to tell.

He turned a little to the left and saw a girl hiding, for lack of a better term, in a corner. Her hair looked unbrushed, and the suit jacket and skirt she wore were a little rumpled. When she noticed him looking at her, she narrowed her faded-blue eyes suspiciously.

He walked over to her with a wave, not sure how to introduce himself to someone who looked so hesitant to speak to him. "Nice to meet you," he decided.

Now that he was closer, he noticed that she was trembling a little. She reached up to adjust her oblong rectagular glasses and coughed quietly. "Not that you'll remember my n-name, anyway, but..." she began with a small frown. ”I'm T-Touko...Touko Fukawa..."

Her choice of words left Naegi feeling like he'd already done something wrong. He actually _did_ remember the name Touko Fukawa, though he hadn't seen what she looked like on the forums. She was a Super High-school Level Librarian. Specifically, she had recently been appointed head librarian at the University of Tokyo Library, which made her basically the most important librarian in Japan. Though Naegi didn't recognize that there was a way to be a "better" librarian than others, she was apparently very effective at her job, apparently able to keep a hawk's eye on all the books at the University of Tokyo, which, Naegi knew, was a _ton_ of books.

"Wh-what are you s-staring at?" she demanded with an indignant glare and a slightly pink face. "D-do I have something on my face??"

"N-no, not at all," Naegi assured her, seriously feeling like this conversation was going downhill after starting at the bottom of the hill. "Sorry, I didn't mean to stare."

“Don’t lie to me!” she commanded, the pink in her face turning more purple. “I-I know what you’re thinking! She doesn't know how to t-take care of herself! What a messy looking p-person, that’s what you’re thinking! W-well, I don’t need it! So go away…!”

Naegi saw no reason not to do just that. He saw a tall boy with dark brown hair done up in a pompadour. "Hi," he greeted, walking up to the boy.

"Hey," he answered, appearing somewhat displeased for some reason. He looked to the side at something Naegi couldn't see and tugged at the collar of his long jacket before returning his attention to Naegi. "Name's Mondo Oowada. Nice to fuckin' meet ya."

Naegi stepped a half a pace back, not bothering to conceal his surprise at Oowada's choice of words. Even though he had read about this guy on the forums, he was still a little taken aback at Oowada's...maybe the word was aggressiveness. Mondo Oowada, he had learned, was a Super High-school Level Stunt Rider with a forward and slightly overpowering personality. He performed majestic tricks on expensive and highly decorated motorcycles for public shows and gave seminars for riders who wanted to be able to do the stunts he did. He was also a stuntman-for-hire in movies that included motorcycle scenes and had made good money for that kind of work. Naegi was impressed at his courage and strength--maybe not so much at his aloof, brute attitude.

"Hey, you need somethin'?" Oowada asked with a raised eyebrow. Apparently he assumed that since he had introduced himself, he was done talking to Naegi.

"Oh, no, sorry," Naegi answered, backing away slightly. He figured that, like with Oogami, he wouldn't want to aggravate Oowada if he could help it.

As he backed away, however, he bumped into somebody. He pivoted on his foot to see whom he had just assaulted and saw the girl in the sporting jacket smiling at him. "Hiya!" she gushed, evidently not at all bothered by his carelessness. "I'm Aoi Asahina--but my friends just call me Hina. Sup!"

She had slightly tanner skin than most of the students he had seen so far. Her hair went slightly below her cheeks, and under the sporting jacket she wore a light T-shirt with a red ascot (smaller than Maizono's). She also wore a black skirt over red shorts that went almost down to her knees, as well as dark green tennis shoes. There was a reason for that: she was a Super High-school Level Tennis Player who, according to the forums, had demolished even seasoned pros. She had even represented Japan in the Olympics in tennis and scored exceptionally for a high-school student. She was also, Naegi noted, particularly pretty, and her warm smile made him feel weirdly pandered to.

"Hey, tell me something," she requested. "What was your name again? I forgot, sorry."

Naegi guessed that wasn't unreasonable; everyone here was having to learn fifteen new names, and some people were more forgetful than others. "Naegi," he told her. "Makoto Naegi."

"Right!" she exclaimed. "I knew it was something like that."

Naegi was more than a little confused at the wording of that sentence. "It wasn't  _something_ like that," he corrected. "It's  _exactly_ like that."

"No yeah, I got it!" she assured him.

When nothing else was said after a few seconds, she looked down at her left hand and began to trace something in the palm with her right index finger. Naegi watched her do this, unsure of whether he was supposed to stick around. "Um, having fun there?" he wondered.

"Haven't you seen this before?" she asked. "They say that if you write someone's name on your hand three times, you'll never forget it!"

"Oh. I guess that's a good idea," Naegi figured.

Another second or two passed. "So, Naegi, do you do any sports?" she asked with a bright expression.

"Uh," Naegi replied, not sure he should tell the truth because he somehow feared that telling her no would disappoint her. "Um...not really, sorry."

As he feared, her smile fell for a moment, but in no time she was back to a perky grin. "Well, that's okay!" she assured him. "It's nice to get to know you, anyway!"

Again, he felt like he could be friends with Asahina. He wondered why it was the sporty ones he found easy to like, but there was probably nothing to it.

When he turned around, he caught the eye of a particularly tall guy with wavy brown hair who, near as Naegi could tell, was wearing two different shirts and two different jackets. The guy waved him over, and Naegi approached him somewhat warily. Warily, because he didn't suppose any totally sane person would wear four layers at the same time for no reason.

"I'm Yasuhiro Isogai!" he announced proudly. "Take it easy, yeah? I know I will!"

Naegi relaxed a little; this guy didn't seem too bad. He remembered seeing something weird about Isogai's age, but he couldn't remember exactly what. Otherwise, he was a Super High-school Level Shaman with a reputation for treating illnesses of all kinds with surprisingly potent medicines made of exotic things nobody had ever heard of. He claimed that his healthcare practice made a point of excluding shady pharmeceuticals with ingredients nobody knew how to pronounce; but, considering that most of his remedies were made with plants from the ancient jungles of the far-off country of No One Lives There, Naegi wondered if the trade-off was really worth it.

"Hey man," Isogai interrupted his reverie. "Once we get out of whatever this is, you and I should grab a drink, yeah? I'll tell you about the surprising uses you can find for crocosmias in aromatherapy healing!"

"Grab a drink?" Naegi repeated incredulously. "But we're seventeen!"

"Oh, right!" Isogai laughed, and for a moment Naegi thought the shaman had actually forgotten his own age. "You see, I'm actually twenty. It's complicated. All sorts of stuff happened and I got left back three grades, yeah?"

Naegi narrowed his eyes. He wasn't sure where to go with that. Still, Isogai seemed...fun, he guessed. Probably an interesting person to hang around with.

As he turned around to look for one of the last three people he hadn't met, his eyes fell on two girls in one corner who appeared to be in some kind of argument. He walked toward the corner, and one of the girls, the one with strawberry blonde hair in short pigtails, caught his eye and stopped talking. The other girl, who had short black hair and wore what looked like an actual school uniform in brown tones, turned to look at him.

They exchanged a glance, and their attitudes appeared to change simultaneously from irritable to welcoming. Now that Naegi was close to them, he noticed that their faces were rather similar--same cheekbone shape, same jawline, same nose--and he wondered if they were related.

"Hiiii!" the blonde one greeted him with a wide-open grin. Naegi's eyes were drawn to the heavy blush makeup she had on, and then to her long red fingernails. "I'm Junko Yaru. Charmed, I'm sure!"

"I'm Mukuro Ikusaba," the black-haired girl followed. Naegi couldn't help thinking she looked a lot paler than Yaru, and he also noticed that she had some kind of marking on her right hand. He couldn't get a good enough look at it to tell what it was, though.

Now, Yaru he recognized. She was a Super High-school Level Pin-Up and had appeared on the covers of several fashion magazines. Naegi knew it was weird to think so, but she looked just as gorgeous in person as on magazine covers. He wasn't really into those kinds of periodicals, but he had seen her face quite a lot just the same whenever he passed by news stands. The general consensus among the forums was that she looked good in literally any clothes. Like you could pick up discarded rags from the street and she would look beautiful in them.

Ikusaba he didn't recognize as much. He had read exactly one post about a Super High-school Level Secret Agent with that name, but the poster said there was almost nothing known about her. Naegi guessed that made sense--not many secret agents would want a lot of information about them on the Internet where anybody could find it. The only really interesting anyone seemed to know about her was that she'd once been part of a mercenary group in the Middle East, but nobody knew which one or anything about the circumstances of her membership there.

Naegi realized that his earlier conclusion must have been wrong; since they had different family names, these girls must not be related.

"I bet you're wondering if we're related," Yaru assumed, still sporting that wide grin. Naegi wondered briefly if he really _was_ saying this stuff aloud. "Well, we are!" she continued. "I know we've got different last names; that's 'cause Muku-chan and I were separated at birth but we found each other in a mystical forest when we were ten, and ran away together to have a new life!"

Naegi blinked twice. "Our actual family name is Enoshima," Ikusaba corrected. "Junko uses the name Yaru in her modeling work because it has a nicer ring to it, and I use Ikusaba in my government work to avoid detection."

"Aw, Muku-chan, why do you always have to spoil my fun!" Yaru complained, punching her lightly in the shoulder.

"It brings me joy," Ikusaba deadpanned with a slight smirk.

"Well, it's nice to meet you both," Naegi told them.

"You too, Naegi-kun!" Yaru cheered.

"Yeah," Ikusaba added, turning away slightly and staring at the floor.

As Naegi walked away, he spied them resuming their earlier squabble over his shoulder. Soon he saw the last person he hadn't introduced himself to, the small girl from before who’d said that one thing when he first walked in. She was wearing a green button-up shirt with gold-colored buttons and some kind of shroud covering her shoulders. The shroud was very large on her, making her look even smaller than she already was. But the most unique thing about her, and the thing that almost made Naegi choke with laughter, was _still_ the fact that she wore her hair in a bowl cut. He didn't know bowl cuts were even still real.

He walked up to her after stifling his admittedly very rude amusement and said, "Hi, nice to meet you."

She seemed to be focusing on something on the floor when he approached and only looked up when he spoke. "Oh, hi," she answered in a soft tone and a lower register that surprised Naegi, who figured such a small girl would have a much higher voice. "Nice to meet you... I'm Chihiro Fujisaki."

Fujisaki was one of the less familiar ones to him, but Naegi had still gotten enough of an image of the Super High-school Level Program Designer from the forums that the cautious tone she took with him wasn't surprising. She apparently worked with all the biggest technology companies and especially computer firms to create programs and applications that revolutionized the way people used electronics. But, according to the forums, the most appreciated thing about her was her meek, timid personality, which had gained her a fanbase described by the forums as "rabid."

"Um, excuse me," she requested. "This is probably a strange question, but have we met before?"

Naegi failed to stop himself from thinking that no, he would remember someone with hair that ridiculous. Of course, he didn't voice that opinion. "No, I don't think we've ever met," he answered.

"Oh...sorry," Fujisaki mumbled, and Naegi could have sworn there were slight tears in her eyes. He really didn't know what to do about that, but he felt awful for making her cry.

He must have looked to be in deep thought for another few seconds, because she added, "Hey... Sorry, I...are you upset?"

"Oh no," Naegi assured her. "No, nothing's wrong."

That didn't seem to assuage the mumbling or the tears. "Um...are you sure? You just look irritated about something...?"

"Not at all!" Naegi repeated. "Sorry, I was just thinking to myself."

"Oh, thank God...!" Fujisaki sighed, smiling now. "I was worried you didn't like me..."

Naegi wasn't sure what in the world would make her think that, but before he could wonder too deeply about it he was captivated by the unaccountably adorable, bubbly smile she now had on. It was only with great effort that Naegi restrained himself from saying "aww" aloud, in public.

Well, now he was done making introductions, but he wasn't sure what to do now. Luckily, he didn't have to wait long for an answer, because as soon as he turned away from Fujisaki, an object on one wall of the hall that looked kind of like a TV screen suddenly burst to life with static.

The static cleared to reveal a silhouette of something that definitely didn't look human. What it _was,_ Naegi couldn't put his finger on. But after a second, it began to speak in a high-pitched, empty-sounding voice:

"Mic check! Mic check! This is an announcement! ...Is this thing on? They can hear me, right? Well, in any case..."

Everyone had turned by now toward the screen, but no one said a word about what was on it. Naegi looked around and saw faces just as confused as his own, and he began to worry about what this new development might mean.

"Ahem!" the silhouette continued. "All new students! We want to start this year's opening assembly, so if you would all please gather at the gymnasium! And with that, I welcome you all to Hope's Peak Academy!"

The screen shut off as quickly as it had come on, leaving the students just standing there staring. "Well...we should go, right?" Yaru figured.

"I don't know," Matsuzaki murmured. "You don't think it could be a trap?"

"It's not a trap!" Isogai assured him. "I'm sure it's gonna be fine!"

With that, he started out of the entrance hall. "I'll be going, too," Togami added and followed Isogai without another word.

"Yes, I believe it would be most advantageous for us to see what is in store for us there," S. agreed. Pretty soon several of the students were filing out of the entrance hall, leaving only Naegi, Fukawa, Kirisawa, and Oogami.

Oogami appeared to be thinking deeply about something. "We will remain in the dark if we do not venture forward," she observed before leaving with the others.

Fukawa looked troubled, but eventually separated herself from her corner and ran to catch up with Oogami, leaving only Naegi and Kirisawa. "Kirisawa-san, are you coming?" Naegi prompted.

Kirisawa looked up at him, drew in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and let it back out. "Sure," she answered, starting out of the entrance hall as well. Naegi walked a few steps behind her.

They walked quietly down the winding halls of the building, mostly watching Oogami and Fukawa several feet ahead to see where they were going. Ultimately, they made it to a set of double doors with the words "Awards Room and Gymnasium" next to it on a plaque.

Inside the doors was a narrow, short hallway with a red carpet laid out from the first set of double doors to another across the room. There was also a glass case spanning the length of the hall with trophies of all kinds in it, from academic achievements to sports accomplishments.

Asahina and Maizono stuck around to look at the trophies, Naegi noticed as he walked through the second set of doors. After he was inside the gymnasium, Asahina tagged along a few seconds later, and Maizono walked gracefully in shortly after.

The gym was pretty standard, with polished yellow wooden floorboards and a stage at the front, presumably for making announcements during assemblies. On the stage was a podium with a microphone holder, and on the front of the podium was Hope's Peak's insignia.

"So, what do you think we're doin' here?" Oowada asked no one in particular.

"Whatever it is, I h-hope it doesn't t-take long," Fukawa complained. "I'm t-t-tired..."

"Did somebody say hope?" interrupted the same high-pitched voice from the monitor. The students turned toward the podium, where the voice seemed to come from. After a few seconds, a ridiculous-looking creature jumped into the air from behind the podium and landed on the stage in front of it.

It was shaped like a bear, but its coloring wasn't like any bear Naegi had ever seen--white with a beady black eye on the right side, black with a jaggedy, shining red eye on the left side. The thing was intensely disturbing to look at, and Naegi would have liked to run away if he wasn't afraid of what might happen if he tried.

"Welcome to Hope's Peak Academy, you bastards!" it cackled. "Nice to see you all made it here without any trouble! Upupu!"

"Wh-what is that thing supposed to be?" Ando fretted, his shoulders seizing up.

"Is it remote controlled...?" Fujisaki wondered, taking a step back.

"Oh, I assure you, I am not being controlled by anyone!" the bear told them.

"Then, what, it's a costume?" Asahina presumed, scratching her chin.

"Really?" the bear demanded. "If I'm not being remote controlled, your next guess is 'costume?' How would a human being even fit inside me? I'm like half your height!

"Besides, like I said, I'm not being controlled at all! I'm a real life bear!" it finished.

"Why would you ever expect us to believe that?" Ikusaba inquired. "You _do_ see what you look like, right?"

"Yeah, I don't see a lotta black-and-white bears around," Matsuzaki agreed.

"Well, I _am,_ " the bear insisted. "And I won't hear any arguments otherwise, you bastards! Anyway, I guess I should introduce myself, huh? I am your new handsome and totally-fair-in-every-way headmaster, Monobear! Upupupu..."

"Monobear?" Naegi repeated. "And...what do you mean, headmaster?"

"Headmaster," Monobear replied in a gruffly authoritative tone. "Noun; the male principal of a private school--"

"Okay, I know what it _means,_ " Naegi interrupted, rolling his eyes. "I mean, what are you talking about? What do you _mean_ you're our new headmaster?"

"Yes, would you like to tell us what's actually going on here?" Togami added.

"None of this makes any sense," Yaru groaned, putting her hand to her hip.

"Don't worry, the picture is about to become much clearer!" Monobear assured them, laughing in a patently maniacal way. "See, the thing you bastards need to realize first is the paramaters of your new school life!"

"What do you mean, school life?" Kirisawa asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Wow, does nobody know what anything means?" Monobear demanded. "School life means school life. The life at the school. The life that you are having which takes place at school. A school thing which is your life--"

"Yeah, we got it," Oowada cut him off with slightly bared teeth.

"So, you see, the thing you have to understand about your new school life..." Monobear paused for a dramatic effect that really wasn't needed in this situation. "Is that it's forever!"

"F-forever??" Maizono echoed, clutching at her chest.

"Come on, this is a joke!" Isogai opined, waving off the notion that what was happening was real. "I mean, this is just a funny joke to be all spooky at us on our first day, yeah?"

"Oh, it's no joke, Isogai-kun!" Monobear disagreed. "From this day forward, you bastards will be living a communal lifestyle in this very school, and you won't be leaving!"

"There wouldn't happen to be a reason _why_ you are doing this," S. supposed, twirling a lock of her hair between her fingers.

"Does there have to be?" Monobear returned. "Does everything always have to have reason?"

"We're n-n-not interested in psychol-logical d-discussions with you," Fukawa snapped. "J-just tell us what you th-think you're doing...!"

"Yeah, why you gotta go after us?" Matsuzaki agreed. "What'd we ever do to you?"

"There's that 'reason' crap again," Monobear sighed. "Everything doesn't have to have meaning, you bastards! Can't I kidnap sixteen high school children just for the hell of it?"

"No you cannot!" Ishimaru answered matter-of-factly, pointing critically at the bear. "It is illegal, and you will go to jail for it as soon as we find a way out of here!"

"Oh but, you see, you _won't_ find a way out of here!" Monobear cackled, tossing his head back and laughing upward for effect. "There's no way for you to escape!"

"I'm afraid this may be so," Oogami admitted. "You may have noticed there are no windows in this building--they all appear to be sealed by iron plates."

"Right-o!" Monobear cheered. "No way are you getting out of this school on your own!"

Lowering his voice as if telling a secret concerning national security, he added, "But there _is_ a way you can get out with my help."

The students were silent, eager despite themselves to hear how they were supposed to get out of this new situation. "You see, the condition is," Monobear began, and then let a brief pause fill the air; "a student who kills another student may leave the school!"

Naegi discovered new meaning in the phrase "his heart leaped into his throat." For a moment, he could barely think; the only thing he consciously experienced was Asahina screaming "What?!" and Maizono exclaiming "K-kill??" Presently, however, his mind returned to him, and he found the energy to yell, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"It's exactly how it sounds!" Monobear explained. "If one of you bastards kills one of your classmates, you'll be allowed to graduate from Hope's Peak Academy, and go back into the outside world! Upupupu!"

"Why," Ikusaba demanded, clenching her fists.

"Because I can!" Monobear shot back. "There, I finally gave you a reason! Are you happy now?"

"Hardly," Togami answered. "There's no way you can enforce this."

"Yeah, and it's not like you can actually keep us here forever!" Asahina added. "I mean, by tomorrow I'm sure the police will hear we're all missing from our homes! They'll figure out we're all Hope's Peak students and they'll come here to save us!"

"It's nice that you think that," Monobear laughed. "And to your point, Togami-kun, I don't mean to _enforce_ this School Life of Mutual Killing in any way! It's merely a suggestion! But, if you ever want to get out of here, I promise you it's the only way!"

"There's no way!" Oowada growled. "You've gotta be shitting us, ain't no way can you just trap us here forever!"

"Hey, the minute you find a way out on your own, you're free to go," Monobear replied. "And then you can send me a big hunk of the bacon you make out of your flying pig!"

"Well, if we had flying pigs, I don't think we'd kill them for bacon," Isogai noted.

"I disagree with you wholeheartedly, Monobear!" Ishimaru announced. "We _will_ find a way out of this school, with or without your assistance!"

"If you say so, Ishimaru-kun!" Monobear cackled. "But while you're at it, you may want to take these!"

He produced--materialized, would actually be more accurate--a cardboard box and dropped it on the floor in front of the stage. The students advanced on the box, and the ones nearer to the front peered inside. "These are your Electronic Student ID Cards!" Monobear explained with a flourish. "Each of you has one, and you will be required to keep it on your person at all times during your School Life of Mutual Killing!"

When none of the students reacted, Monobear added, "Well go on, take them!"

Standing in the front of the group, Togami reached into the box and removed one of the cards. He pressed the small switch on the side, and the others crowded around as the card lit up, displaying a photo of Ikusaba and the words "Touch Screen to Proceed." "I guess this is yours," he sleuthed, handing the card to the Super High-school Level Secret Agent.

Over the next half-minute or so, the students collected the rest of the cards and passed them to their owners. After Maizono gave him his own card, Naegi followed the direction and tapped the screen with his photo on it. The photo shrank to about an inch square and floated to the top-left corner of the screen; his own name in fancy letters now took up the middle of the screen, and some basic facts about his physical appearance dotted the other corners.

"Please verify that your own real name is shown on your Electronic Student ID Card," Monobear instructed. "And take note of the Rules section of the card. In this section, you will see a set of rules that will make this School Life of Mutual Killing a great deal more orderly! I expect you to follow this rules--any student who breaks the public order will be punished without hesitation! Upupu!"

"Sure," Yaru agreed, sarcasm dripping in her voice. "Tell us to kill each other in order to leave the school, but be sure to tack some _rules_ on with it!"

"What objection to you have to rules, Yaru-san?" Monobear inquired. "Rules help us all live a more sensible, easy-to-maintain life!"

"Not these rules!" Ishimaru criticized, looking down at his ID Card. "These rules are meant for malice, and any sense of order that is brought about by them is a sick, twisted one!"

"Well I'm sorry you feel that way!" Monobear laughed.

"One moment," S. requested. "I have a question about one of your rules."

"Shoot!" Monobear ordered.

"It is about the rule that says, 'A culprit who kills a fellow student will graduate the school; however, they must not let any other student know they are the culprit.'"

"Oh, yes!" Monobear cheered. "I'm glad we have at least one astute student in our group! You might all want to take a look at your Rules section to see what S.-san is talking about."

Naegi quickly hit the "Rules" button on his card and heard a few of his classmates do the same. As he looked down the list of rules, he saw the one S. had quoted.

"Yeah, she's right," Matsuzaki observed. "What _does_ that mean?"

"It's actually very simple," Monobear promised them. "After you murder one of your classmates, you must be prepared to get away with it during a class trial!"

"Get away with it...?" Naegi repeated. It just seemed like such a callous notion--even more cruel than the actual idea of _killing_ someone.

"So, um..." Fujisaki mumbled. "You're saying that, if someone dies...there's a trial for it?"

"Exactly! It's just like in real life!" Monobear affirmed. "Whenever there's a murder in our School Life of Mutual Killing, you'll all investigate the murder and try to reason out the culprit! And then, we'll hold a class trial to determine if you were able to investigate well enough to find the murderer!"

"This is a horrid mockery of the justice system we all hold dear, and I will not stand for it!" Ishimaru cried. "We will not participate in your dark games!"

"If that's how you feel, then just don't murder anyone!" Monobear suggested. "And, of course, make sure none of your classmates murder anyone either! Which, obviously, is easy as cake, right?"

"He is playing to our paranoia that we may be murdered despite our best efforts to prevent any killing," Oogami deduced.

"But, it's not going to work, right?" Naegi prompted everyone. "I mean, there's no reason any of us needs to kill anyone!"

"It must be nice to be able to take that attitude!" Monobear mused. "I sure hope it doesn't get you killed! Upupupu...!"

He tossed his head back again. "Ahahahahaa!" he roared. "Later, you bastards! I can't _wait_ to see what kinds of murders go on here at Hope's Peak Academy!"

With that he leaped back behind the podium. Naegi figured Kirisawa must have had the same idea as him; they both leaped onto the stage and looked behind the podium, but Monobear was nowhere to be seen. "What the hell!" Naegi complained.

"He must have some sort of secret passage to use just for that purpose," Kirisawa realized.

"How can this be happening to us!" Ando raged upward, presumably at the heavens.

"Oh, what are we going to do?" Maizono sighed, pulling at the hem of her shirt.

"Clearly, we're going to explore this school and look for a method of escaping," Togami replied in a "duh" tone of voice. "There's no reason for this to go on any longer than it needs to, and the sooner we find a way out, the better."

"I just can't believe someone would _do_ something like this!" Asahina noted.

"Yeah, who kidnaps a bunch of high school kids?" Matsuzaki concurred. "It makes no sense!"

"And it might be over sooner than we thought," Kirisawa added, pointing at her Electronic Student ID Card. "If you look at the Rules section here, one of the rules says, 'You are free to explore the school as much as you want. There are no special restrictions on your actions.'"

"So we can go anywhere we want!" Naegi summed up. "That means we have a better chance of finding a way out!"

"F-figure that out all on y-your own, Sh-Sherlock?" Fukawa wondered quietly. When Naegi glanced at her, she shrunk back significantly.

"Then let us explore!" Ishimaru decided. "We will spend our time for this first day trying to find clues concerning our situation and, hopefully, a means of escape! Then, tomorrow morning, we will gather together to discuss our findings!"

"That sounds like a delightful idea," S. giggled softly.

"I guess I'm in," Oowada agreed.

"Hopefully we'll actually find something," Ikusaba added grimly.

"Sure we will!" Naegi assured her, as well as himself. At least, he _hoped_ they would find something useful. As they started to file out of the gymnasium, he wondered what, exactly, they might find, and whether the results of their search would be anything useful.

"I'm sure what we find will be very useful," Maizono assured him, walking close by his side.

He did a double take. "How did you know I was thinking that?" he asked, already a little sure of how she would respond.

"I can read minds," she replied with a straight face that almost instantly dissolved into a giggle. "I'm just kidding, I just have good intuitions."

Naegi wondered if it was possible they were allowed to explore in pairs.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope I invoked the right ideas with this so far, and I hope to continue this story soon. Feedback is always welcome: tell me if there's anything I should change, please and thank you!


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